WICKED LITTLE CHILDREN....something new?

Dawn Boyle

I spent yesterday with some of my closest friends. There were 11 families, all different ages, boys and girls playing together for hours and hours. There was not one fight (except for the one that happened down the beach between teenagers). No one was injured (except for the kid with friends down the beach, nothing major). There was an earthquake (no seriously, there was and I felt it).

Anyway, it was the perfect day....on the way home, it turned to be the same old, same old with my kids. Why can't this one come over, where are we going after we get home from the beach, can we stop and get ice cream. Never enough.

It got me thinking, are kids worse today than in the decades before or is it that we suck as parents? Have we given up on trying to parent our kids? Who is really in control...them or us? Twenty years ago did kids behave better? What caused the change?

I would love to hear your thoughts!

MEMORIES....

Dawn Boyle

As many of you have read we went out on a limb late last year and purchased a bigger boat. It has all the luxuries of home..air conditioning, central vac, an in house dish washer (me), and at this point I think we have 4 grills. We have done some short trips. Gone to numerous restaurants. Slept over with our awesome Tobay friends almost every weekend, and Gregory launched the girls dingy this past weekend.

We have crab traps, clam rakes, boogie boards, and Mommy's very own floating lounge (still in box). We watch movies on the beach on giant "screens" aka sheets and hand out glow sticks like they are going out of style. We dine at our two very own restaurants and play at the water park and newly installed mini-golf. We celebrate birthdays and all watch out for each others kids. I have made a number of new friends, but have also rekindled friendships from long ago and solidified casual acquaintances,  now to be some of my go-to people. We really are a family - of course there is some MAJOR dysfunction, but what good family is void of that?

Along with all the fun does come some sad...we had the unfortunate experience this week of having someone lose a child. He was 22 years old and happened to be hit by a car while walking on the shoulder of a road in Suffolk County. I never met him, but know his parents. My heart breaks for Snug As A Bug and their family. One thing is for certain, their Tobay family will be there for them, cause that is just how it goes down at the beach.

REST IN PEACE E.F.

MAY GOD HELP YOUR FAMILY DURING THIS DIFFICULT TIME

 OUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU

SCREAMS HEARD AT NIGHT

Dawn Boyle

Many of you are aware of the Serial Killer(s) here on Long Island that have been littering our shores with people. So far there have been over 10 sets of remains recovered on the shoreline of our South Shore beaches, to be honest it is right in my own backyard. I have to admit a few times I have gotten freaked out about this, but nothing like what happened this past weekend.

Friday afternoon was stormy. We had strong gusty winds and torrential rains. Around 8:00 the rain subsided and we heading over to our boat. Last minute plans to sleep over for the weekend were in full swing. My daughters had a friend joining us. We waiting 'til the sky was clear and pink to push off. We arrived to very distant lightning up in the clouds and a rainbow that stretched clear across the bay. It was beautiful. We pulled in to our usual spot and said hello to a few of the diehards. These guys will ride out anything, and apparently that day it was wind gusts of 60mph. We settled in and joined our friends for a cocktail on the dock. It was about 11:00 when I was standing with two friends, talking about how we needed school to be over and how our children were fried from the year and how the boat basin was unusually empty, being Fathers Day weekend and we figured the nasty weather had kept many away, when we heard a blood curdling scream, followed by two other shrills.

THE WATERS AROUND HERE

Dawn Boyle
I have lived on Long Island my entire life. I was born in December, but by the summer my parents had me on their boat. We were North Shore water folk then and hung out at Hempstead Harbor and Centre Island beaches when not boating in the Long Island Sound. I get my love for the water from my parents. My mother used to take us to the beach Monday through Friday. We stayed til dinner time every day. During that time we also summered out in East Hampton. We spent our time in the waters of Gerard Drive, playing by the point and trying not to walk past the "dip".

In my early teens I started hanging out on the South Shore religiously, it has been my stomping grounds since. We love Tobay and are there almost every day, but something odd has happened over the past few years.

I remember when I was VERY young finding starfish and hermit crabs. When I was a teen I was too busy finding and catching lifeguards and surfers to worry about sea creatures, but would remember if I did.

It started with my girls finding starfish. I mean LOTS of starfish about two summers ago. A few months after the starfish began they found sand dollars. Then the middle of last summer while sitting at the ocean we saw a school of dolphin swimming and jumping along the coast. This past weekend we had a rather large seal swimming along the shore and two days ago, a little further out east we had sharks.

This all makes my ten year old daughter thrilled because she loves the ocean and hopes to be an oceanographer some day, to me it kinda makes me think something else is going on in our waters. What is with the big change....whatever happened to that Montauk Monster???  LET THE SUMMER BEGIN!!

BABY I'M BACK!

Dawn Boyle

I am happy to announce that the kids went back to school earlier this week. It was a long Spring Break. The weather was crappy and I did more running around then I care to rehash.

Today I start a renewal of myself. I spent the last two days cleaning my house and I am 100% ready for the season to officially begin. I am ready for beach chairs with sand in my toes and weekends out on the boat! I am ready for "Lady Lunches" to being and Thirsty Thursdays. I want to be hanging out at Bracco's or EB Elliot's drinking over priced drinks and partying at the Freeport Festival. I look forward to heading out east to Liars Salon in Montauk and crashing the next day at Nick's Beach with some Mud Slides or Killer Coladas with 151 floaters. How I have waited for you so long lover and can not wait to get back to my fun loving ways and easy breezy attitude!!

 BRING ON THE WEEKEND! BRING ON THE SPRING! BRING ON SUMMER 2011!!!